Iraqi Leaders and Iraqi People Prefer US Democratic Party to Republicans

Numerous recent polls in both the US and Iraq have shown that a majority of the people prefer the ideas of the Democratic Party regarding the war in Iraq to those coming out of the White House. Now, reports from Baghdad show that the Iraqi leaders themselves prefer the Democratic Party to the Republican Party in how to move forward in that country. This report from the Iraqi capital shows just that.

Many pointed out advantages to the Democrats' increased sway over Iraq policy. Government officials said they had generally found the Democratic position on handing over security to Iraqi forces sooner rather than later closer to theirs. Almost all agree on Democratic Party initiatives, squashed when Republicans controlled Congress, to prevent the building of permanent U.S. bases here. They note news reports of Democrats acknowledging the suffering of the Iraqi population.

"I see that the Democratic ideas are more related to reality," said Ammar Tuma, a lawmaker who serves in Maliki's ruling Shiite coalition. "They talk about the real problems that the Iraqis are facing every day."

To date, government officials said, they've also found Democratic visitors such as Pelosi, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois less parochial, more culturally sensitive and more willing to listen to Iraqi concerns than Republicans.

"Before, Bush used to order Iraqi officials to do this and that," said one member of Maliki's Islamic Dawa Party, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "The Republicans were dictating the political process in Iraq. With the Democrats in control of Congress, the Republicans are now less influential than before. It helps us in a sense to breathe a bit more and to have more freedom."

Many of the Shiites around Maliki still harbor bitterness about the Bush administration's push to remove then-interim Prime Minister Ibrahim Jafari from his post last year. They considered the pressure inappropriate interference in Iraq's domestic affairs. They were also angered by recent remarks by Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice questioning whether Maliki was up to the job of leading Iraq.

Jafari as you will recall disagreed with the Bush Administration and the Bush Administration forced him out of office despite his being elected PM by the Iraqi people. After that, it took months for anyone else to accept the position until Maliki finally did. Then the Bush Administration leaked an internal memo that they didn’t have confidence in him. Meaning agree with us or you’ll be out of office like your predecessor. Some model of Democracy.


No wonder Iraqi people in general and Iraqi leaders in particular prefer the Democratic Party to the Republican Party.

This quote courtessy of http://www.crooksandliars.com/.